Creative Non-fiction: Athlete Profile

"A Chance Encounter"
This creative piece profiling a Stanford student-athlete was written for Words & Deeds, a book commissioned and published by the Stanford Athletic Department (2004).

An excerpt is included below; full text available upon request.

Before deciding to come to Stanford, sophomore Thomas Hopkins never suspected he would find himself running through the streets of Dubrovnik, Croatia, in a Speedo. But two months after graduating from high school, surrounded by the Stanford men’s water polo team – of which he was now a member – and led by Coach John Vargas, he found himself in just such an unlikely scenario.

The early morning practice began with some ceremonial push-ups on the front steps of the hotel, followed by a three-mile jog through the city. While it is true that Europeans are more accustomed than Americans to the phenomenon that is the male Speedo, it is still safe to assume that the sight of some fifteen odd water polo players sporting them through the streets garnered a few curious stares. The light trot ended at a small cove in the Adriatic where the team proceeded to perform what Coach Vargas calls “ins and outs,” swimming fifty feet out and then back, with more push-ups in between each lap.

The week spent in Croatia was part of the team’s preseason training trip in August of 2002, which began in Belgrade, watching teammates Peter Hudnut and Tony Azevedo compete in the World Cup match. After this tournament, No. 1 ranked Stanford traveled on together to play against top teams in both Croatia and the former Yugoslavia.